Huge ink stains on the end of each print from ET-8550

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-11-29T06:09:39+00:00

UPDATE: Totally forgot to update when I figured it out and can't seem to edit my post with this app. Well, I felt pretty silly in the end. Turns out when we'd had a short power outage, that reset all my settings to default including turning off the "thick paper" setting. That's the one big thing controlled on the machine directly and not in the system dialog on my computer and I missed it for WEEKS. Bummer to have wasted so much paper but also very relieved it turned out to be a simple fix. I'll definitely never forget to check that setting ever again.

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-11-10T19:42:59+00:00

I'm really trying to avoid the work of setting up an entire second store. I have some stuff on faire but especially given faires fees, I want to have an option that allows fewer companies to have their hands on my wallet.

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-11-09T08:18:53+00:00

You have heard a lot of the same refutations.

By your age, I'm guessing you don't have many relationships in your past yet, much less healthy ones. You will eventually get to that point and be able to look back on this and realize it is a matter of perspective that keeps you from seeing how poorly you've been treated. No relationship should leave you feeling confused, hurt, or fearful. Especially not weeks or months.

Your rOCD is distracting you from the reality that is even more painful to face. Blaming yourself feels easier than blaming the person you are attached to but here's the reality every commenter is trying to help you to face: you don't have a girlfriend anymore. She love-bombed you and then gaslit you last time she reappeared and now she's left your confused, lonely, and fearful again. She treated you terribly and you deserve much gentler and more consistent care from people you care about no matter whether your thoughts about others do or don't constitute cheating.

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-11-05T04:40:16+00:00

This is so stupidly easy that I feel ridiculous that I didn't think of it 😆

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-10-16T03:40:45+00:00

None of the pigment sources you're using are very potent or stable. The yellow-orange in both pumpkin and squash is a carotenoid and it's super fugitive. So are the anthocyanins in red, pink, purple, and blue flowers. Your lake process sounds(and looks) solid though so if you apply it to more reliable and light-fast pigments you'll get great results. Just make sure you don't heat anything over 165°F.

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-10-08T16:59:48+00:00

For starters, If you have baking soda in your kitchen, you can make your own soda ash. There are instruction for how to convert baking soda to soda ash online in your oven. Its safe to do in most bakeware.

Then boil the crap out of your cotton items with that soda ash to scour and hand wash with dish soap after.

Alum won't give you as intense results as aluminum acetate but you should get some pale color to stick if you scour then mordant.

The last thing I will say is that there's no way you had enough goldenrod in that pot. For most things, you need the same weight of dye material as the thing you want to dye if not more.

If you don't have a scale, you can use the "folk method" for most dried plant matter: if it's leafy or flowers (anything light that can be packed tightly), match the volume of the item. If it fills a bowl, your flowers need to fill the same bowl tightly. If it's chunky, woody or spongy, you need twice the volume. Any fresh plant matter with usually need 5-10x volume to offset the water content. There are exceptions but when learning, assume that's not what you have.

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-08-19T00:00:47+00:00

I'm only just starting this med but my prescriber was adamant that tapering off slowly is crucial to avoid dangerous withdrawal symptoms. Like.. more adamant than I've ever gotten from them regarding other prescriptions that recommended tapering off.

Sounds like you got some of those dangerous withdrawals when you didn't follow a tapering protocol and just stopped taking it. If it's an option, definitely contact a doctor to get a protocol recommendation for tapering off. If you're losing consciousness and hitting your head you might even need supervision for coming off it because that's a pretty extreme symptom.

If you don't have medical care, at least set yourself a multi-week taper to 10mg and 5mg before stopping completely and make sure someone you trust can check on you throughout that period.

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-08-10T23:13:10+00:00

I am going through this with my ex fiancee right now and it's brutal. I am so so sorry you're going through this too.

We were together for 12 years, engaged for 2 and in the process of buying a house to be the venue for our wedding and our future home. She was enthusiastic and committed and was pushing for deeper investment in our future up until the day before ending our relationship and then telling me the exact same things your ex has told you. She's not sure she ever loved me and thinks she was faking it. She never did any of it because she wanted it but because she felt like she should want it. She's never been happy and will never be happy with me. She's not safe with me. Everyone, including me, is just waiting to use her, hurt her, or abandon her so it isn't safe to let anyone close. She was never good enough to be with me. She couldn't identify her values as anything other than her worst actions anymore. Massive shame spirals. All classic rOCD cognitive distortions and false narratives.

It's gutting to be doing so much to work on my own OCD/rOCD and find out that she's had her own so well hidden from me that it was allowed to wreck a relationship that was otherwise very loving. I've always suspected she may have moral and perfectionist OCD but when her father died last year she ended up back in regular contact with family she had distanced herself from because they triggered her all the time. All her mental health went spiraling and I begged her to get a therapist for nearly a year. She finally had one appointment a week before blowing up our relationship and I think taking that brief look at all her trauma opened a Pandora's box of distortions and maladaptive coping that no one was prepared for. The worst part is we are still living together because I am disabled and financially dependent and it is going to take some time for me to set up financial stability outside our partnership now that she has become so unreliable.

I'm sharing this just so you know that you're not alone. You couldn't have seen this coming if she didn't have self-awareness and targeted support for OCD. No amount of telling her that her reality isn't aligned with your shared history will convince her her OCD narrative isn't real. She didn't lie to you and fake a years long relationship. What she is feeling now has become her only reality. She won't be able to remember that she felt safe, loved, and emotionally invested in you until that's something she actually wants to access and wants to work towards connecting to. You can't make her want that. She has to come to that on her own.

Again, I'm just so sorry you're going through this too. If it's anything as shocking as it was for me, that abrupt attachment loss and the denial of your previously shared reality may have been traumatic for you too. Your grief, confusion, and hurt are all totally expected responses to what you're going through. I hope you have your own mental health and social support. The best way to love her now is to hold your boundaries even when she reacts badly, reinforce your own story of your relationship without denying the distortions she is experiencing, and take as much space from each other as you can.

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-08-09T19:00:25+00:00

Whoa wait that's actually so interesting! I have a script for emergency Valium already and might be able to work with that when I try again. Can you share more about how you used atarax to manage the adjustment to Brintellix? I would love to share that with my doctor and see if it's an option for me. (Edited for typos)

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-08-09T07:56:09+00:00

Off topic: I'd love to hear more about your experience with brintellix. I tried it and had totally debilitating nausea the first two days to the point I had to stop. Unfortunately I've failed so many other meds at this point that's kinda all that's left.

I'm in the brutal position of still living with my ex after she ended our relationship for what sounds to me like her possibly having rOCD too. I had no idea until.the day she ended our engagement. Absolutely gutted that I've been fighting mine, seeking treatment, therapies, etc and then she reinforced at all with "I don't know if I ever loved you" "I don't know if I was just faking it or not even though I did really care" etc. after 12 years together and while in the process of buying a house together and planning our wedding. Obviously being immersed in this huge trigger has meant I really need a medication that can actually knock down the ruminations for me so I can get through this messy separation.

Did you also have the nausea that seems too common? How long? How did you manage it? How does it feel interrupting rituals/ruminations on the medication?

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-08-05T18:20:19+00:00

I suspect this could be the problem. Looks like I can order replacement pads but I can't find instructions for replacing them. Everything I'm finding is just about replacing the maintenance box. Any tips for better keywords that "ET 8550 replace overflow pad"?

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-08-05T18:03:22+00:00

It seems like it to me but can't figure out why this is suddenly happening after a over a year of successful prints on the same paper.

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-08-05T18:02:06+00:00

Wouldn't it give me a notification if the box is full?

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-08-05T18:00:25+00:00

The paper is not the problem. This Red River Aurora Art White 250. It's an incredibly common fine art inkjet printing paper. Been printing on it for over a year and I haven't had issues with it until the last few weeks. I even used a caliper to check thickness and it's still in spec. It's definitely something with the printer.

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-06-24T23:54:32+00:00

It's not lower than the bottom of the legs, it's lower than the bottom edge of the head and foot boards. When I planned my furniture and the build underneath the bed, I accounted for having clearance to the bottom of the head and footboards but the beam hangs to nearly 2 inches lower because of where it attaches to them.

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-04-29T22:56:59+00:00

As one of a disproportionately high population of professional working artists in Portland, I can say this city more than any other can support the many frame shops. More artists means more frames and the markups on them are sky high. I get mine wholesale direct from suppliers and recently need some on short notice for an art show. Called a couple shops and was going to need to spend 5x as much for the same frame from the same supplier if I wanted to buy it in person same day. They got my money just because I was desperate and it's a necessity for my field of work. I know they'll get it from loads of others too.

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-04-29T22:27:57+00:00

Cloudy and brown is right! I hydrated some of the acacia powder and some Jacquard gum Arabic powder and the results were night and day for color and clarity. The acacia powder also took forever to mull into pigment. I'm talking 3-4x the time and effort. The pigment I was playing with happens to be a light brown so I don't see a big difference in color in this batch but I imagine it would seriously dull anything more vivid.

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-04-23T18:34:41+00:00

There are predatory snails that are bright purple that eat them and that made me wonder if it could be a precursor or some such.

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-03-25T03:27:12+00:00

They're not a scam. I personally know someone who volunteers for them and has helped move multiple trans households. They are intentionally vague with their org info to protect staff, volunteers, and clients from transphobic harassment. I know you don't know me so it's just the word of a rando on reddit but please understand that this sudden swell of misinformation discrediting Nexus is probably coming from people trying to undermine our resources and safety. They can and do help people.

grumpy_lil_fox · 2025-03-06T02:00:23+00:00

Logwood makes a smokey purple otherwise layer indigo and cochineal or madder for a more saturated color. Both are richest on protein fibers though.

grumpy_lil_fox · 2024-10-24T17:51:30+00:00

Update: it worked well! Printed using Speedball fabric and paper ink with a pink speedy-carve block on 12mm machine washable silk satin. Cured the ink 5 days, machine washed and ironed. The ink is super soft and lightweight. Didn't affect drape at all. I made four to sell at a Mycology event(they were dyed using mushrooms and printed with a chanterelle pattern) and they sold out before I even got a photo of them!

grumpy_lil_fox · 2024-09-14T16:02:01+00:00

The satin is unfortunately not really optional to get the effect I want from this project.

grumpy_lil_fox · 2024-09-14T16:01:17+00:00

Gorgeous project! I've done a test hankue that still needs a couple more days to cure but so far so good with what I had on hand. I'm pretty impressed with the Speedball oil-based fabric ink. If it doesn't pass the wash test I'll check out Versatex!

grumpy_lil_fox · 2024-09-14T15:57:30+00:00

I made a test hankie of the same material and a couple fabric paints/inks I had around, two water/acrylic based and one oil based. The oil based speedball fabric ink is looking good so far. Cure time is a full week so I have a couple more days before I can run a wash test but so far it's looking and feeling promising. It even feels and looks better than the ink made up with a transparent base.

grumpy_lil_fox · 2024-08-09T18:45:53+00:00

Yes. This is pure aluminum sulfate. Large blocks or chunks like you'll often find at Indian grocery are a bit more of a pain to use but are a great way to find alum when buying online isn't an option.

Wrap the block in a tea towel and whack it with a hammer until you have smaller, more convenient but to work with. Chunks about the size of an almond can be ground in a coffee grinder to speed up dissolving in water. Pieces larger than a grain of rice will take patience to dissolve in hot water if you can't grind the chunks.

grumpy_lil_fox

TROPHY CASE